104 Annual Flowers. 



priate and agreeable occupation for ladies. We quote from 

 a work of great authority. 



Of all kinds of flowers, the ornamental garden annuals are 

 perhaps the most generally interesting ; and the easiness of 

 their culture renders it peculiarly suitable for a feminine pur- 

 suit. The pruning and training of trees, and the culture of 

 culinary vegetables, require too much strength and manual 

 labor ; but a lady, with the assistance of a laborer to level 

 and prepare the ground, may turn a barren waste into a flower 

 garden with her own hands. Sowing the seeds of annuals, 

 watering them, transplanting them when necessary, training 

 the plants by tying them to little sticks as props, or by leading 

 them over trellis-work, and cutting off the dead flowers, or 

 gathering the seeds for the next year's crop, are all suitable for 

 feminine occupations, and they have the additional advan- 

 tage of inducing gentle exercise in the open air. 



It is astonishing how much beauty may be displayed in a 

 little garden only a few yards in extent, by a tasteful arrange- 

 ment of annual flowers. All that is required is a knowledge 

 of the colors, forms and habits of growth of the different kinds. 

 Many of the flowers now grown in our gardens are not worth 

 culture ; but they are grown year after year, because their 

 cultivators know them, and do not know anything better. 

 Many beautiful flowers have been introduced, grown for a 

 season or two, and then thrown out of cultivation from the 

 want of a demand for them ; and this want has arisen from 

 very few flower-growers being aware of their existence. 



The culture of annuals has two great advantages over the 

 culture of all other flowers whatever. In the first place it is 

 attended with less expense than any other description of flower 

 culture ; and in the second, all the enjoyment it is capable of 

 affording is obtained within the compass of six or eight months. 

 Bulbous or tuberous-rooted plants, like annuals, produce their 

 blossoms in the first year; but they are attended with a 

 greatly increased expense. Perennial herbaceous flowers 

 never come to perfection until the second year, and, like bulbs, 

 can be beneficially purchased only by those who expect to re- 

 tain the occupation of their garden for several successive 

 years. To a resident of New York, who generally 'moves' 



